Current Stories

Patriot G series DDR3 and DDR2 kits

Patriot Memory announced their new G-series memory kits, these DDR3 and DDR2 modules should have attractive pricing (but did not include pricing details in the press release).

Patriot G-series lineup:

PC3-12800 (6GB)

PC3-10666 (6GB)

PC3-12800 (4GB)

PC3-10666 (4GB)

PC2-8500 (4GB)

PC2-6400 (4GB)

Patriot will spotlight its new "G" Series kits around their 'Enhanced Latency' line for both DDR2 and DDR3 products. With the Patriot "G" Series, you get the look and feel of many of the high end, gaming memory products, but with an advantageous price. "Consumers are looking for options; our goal is to give them the opportunity to add new technology, at a reasonable cost," says JR Wakabayashi, Patriot's Marketing Manager. "Patriot's 'G' Series is designed with the same quality and reliability that has made Patriot Memory a steadfast name in the gaming industry. The "G" Series will help us reach that segment that is looking for something new and original, but needs an economical solution."

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay Trailer

Drummroll - here it it ! the Modern Warfare 2 trailer has finally available, showing nearly two minutes of footage from the highly anticipated game.

The first-ever in-game footage of the sequel to Call of Duty 4. Lots of shooting and lots of explosions shown in the footage. The video also informs on a bit of the title's story, which will see the rise of villain Makarov. Modern Warfare 2 hits November 10, exploding castles and all. Check it out !

MSI N9800GT-MD512 and MD1G

MSI introduces two energy saving graphics cards in the N9800GT series: MSI N9800GT-MD512 and N9800GT-MD1G. These graphics cards are equipped with Hi-c CAP and All Solid Caps to ensure stability and a long lifespan. Next to that, the N9800GT series have Solid State Chokes (SSC) to avoid a buzz noise.

The MSI N9800GT-MD1G and N9800GT-MD512 features an advanced power control technology, which makes the graphics cards 25% more power efficient compared to reference designs. Furthermore, these graphics cards have an HDMI port to easily setup an HTPC.

Market Name

N9800GT-MD1G

N9800GT-MD512

Photo

GPU

GeForce 9800GT

Codename

G92

Manufacture Process

55nm

Stream Processor

112

Core Clock

550 MHz

Stream Processor Clock

1375 MHz

Memory Clock

1800 MHz

Memory Size

1GB GDDR3

512MB GDDR3

Memory Bus

256 Bits

DirectX Version

DirectX 10

OpenGL Version

OpenGL 2.1

Output

HDMI, DVI, D-Sub

TDP

<75W

MSI updates 790FX-GD70 and 790GX-G65 with Winki

MSI has updated it's MSI 790FX-GD70 & 790GX-G65 motherboards with new Winky technology. Now first off, we';ll be giving away 790FX-GD70 motherboard in a complete PC later this week in a competition, and I can already tell you .. these are really lovely motherboards.

Winki boots off an internal flash drive, and offers punters some basic connectivity with Firefox, an IM client, VOIP and a photo viewer. So far MSI is offering Winki on two AM3 boards, the 790GX-G65 and 790FX-GD70, and there's no word on any upcoming Intel products.

Winki provides the user of the mainboard a new convenient feature: after turning on your PC, you can instantly go online, no need to wait for an OS to start up. Since Winki does not rely on any OS, the MSI 790FX-GD70 and 790GX-G65 mainboards can use its MSI's exclusive APS power saving technology while running Winki. Four major Internet services are integrated in Winki: Web page browsing, online chat/instant messaging, online phone calls (VoIP), and fast photo viewing.

A decade of Guru3D: Contest 1

Guru3D.com is ten years of age and as such we really want to celebrate that fact, not only with some interesting articles, but of course also with some really sweet competitions. And I say sweet competitions here as, my man... we have so much lined up to give away as prizes, it's nearly crazy.

In this first competition of the week we'll be giving away, in five prize packages (!):

GeForce GTX 285 personally signed by Jen-Sun Huang, the man himself, the CEO of NVIDIA!

BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC2

Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 sound card (x3)

OCZ Blade 2000MHz 7-8-7 Triple Channel 6GB

OCZ Vendetta 2 including Core i7 brackets

OCZ Illuminati Keyboard

OCZ Behemoth Mouse

OCZ Behemoth Mousepad

BFG EX1200 Power Supply

ECS X48T-A motherboard

HIS Radeon HS 4870 IceQ 4+ TURBO

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 power supply

Corsair TX650W PSU (2x)

HIS Radeon HS 4870 IceQ 4+ TURBO

Zalman NC1500 notebook cooler

ECS N9600GT-512MX-F

HIS Radeon HD 4670 iSilence 4 1GB

Check out what you need to do right here, A Decade of Guru3D Contest 1.

Realtek HD Audio 2.24 Driver released

Forgot to post this earlier this week, but realtek once again launched a new driver for their integrated audio chipsets.

The latest download of Realtek's HD audio driver version available for Windows XP and Vista, it supposedly runs under Windows 7 too.

The HD audio driver version for Realtek chips is available for download on our server. This download offers both the Windows XP and Vista binaries, the files contain drivers for the 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions. All Realtek HD audio chips, which are common on many motherboards and in notebooks, are supported.

A Decade of Guru3D - History of Guru3D #1

This week Guru3D turns ten years of age. Throughout the week we'll have several articles and rediculously sexy contests, however as tradition requires, we just have to tell a tale or two about Guru3D.com, today the first part of .. the History of Guru3D #1

Guru3D turns 10 - A Decade of Guru3D !

Ten years ago in May on the 24th of 1999 the domain Guru3D.com was registered, and we mark that day, the day that Guru3D.com reached a decade. Serving you fine readers enthusiast gaming related hardware content.

With this special occasion we have a lot of things lined up, among them a history of Guru3D.com article, a hardware history article where we'll look back at graphics cards back in the late 90'ies. We'll also do something really special on the green environmental side of things and sure .. we gathered prizes for you guys.

Initially we wanted to have one big contest, however we got so many stuff top give away that this week we'll launch three contests with many thousands of EURO's in prices. Among these prizes, many graphics cards, enthusiast soundcards, high-end power supplies.

We even had NVIDIA CEO Jen-Sun Huang sign an engineering sample GeForce GTX 285 which we'll give away, we have a customized Smooth Creations Far Cry 2 / Guru3D themed chassis to give away, or how about some 6GB 2000 MHz OCZ Blade memory ? Or perhaps you like a Zalman GS1000SE chassis. No ? Well BFG is also sponsoring a GeForce GTX 285 OC2 edition and their new 1200 Watt PSU.

We'll also give away Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards that are still in development, HIS is going crazy for you guys. These are just a couple of the prizes we'll give away in contests .. and you know what ? At the end of the week we'll give away a complete AMD/ATI Dragon PC away as well .. that's right .. Phenom II 955 BE, MSI 790FX motherboard, we pop a Radeon HD 4890 in there, some nice memory, DVD-RW ... really .. a top notch system.

As you'll notice, this week will be all about giving and sharing. I will share with you my personal story on how Guru3D.com was founded and will take you through the history of Guru3D.

But guys .. we have so much lined up this week, that we'll divide everything over six days, here's the program.

We hope you'll join us in our festivities ! If you like to say hello or congratulate us, we opened up a forum thread right here ! Let's make this an awesome week, and I do hope so much that a lot of you will take part of it.

Thanks so much,

Hilbert Hagedoorn, owner of Guru3D.com

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Official Web Site Launched

Continuing the game exactly were "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl" ended, "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat" got its own official web site now which you can find here. Using GSC Game World's own game engine, the X-Ray engine v.1.6, it is supposed to increase the graphical details of the game even further.

Besides screenshots and a few hints regarding the story, you can also find some interesting new features of the game:

Photorealistic exclusion Zone

ASUS ROG OC Station

If you're a proud owner of ASUS's flagship ROG motherboard then here's a wonderful product for you. The ROG OC Station is a one of a kind device that grants users on-the-fly access to overclocking parameters, ROG-exclusive features, fan speeds, system information and even a photo slideshow function. To overclock your ROG board all you have to do is connect ROG OC Station to your board and change various parameters.

That's it. The pure hardware-based, bay-mounted device with a large 3-inch display takes OCing to a whole new level of ease, accuracy and sophistication, reports ASUS.

Microsoft to apply 3-app limit on Win 7 Starter?

One thing that microsoft is good in is limiting their operating systems. As such Microsoft will drop a controversial three-app limit on Windows 7 Starter Edition by the time it reaches shelves, an apparent scoop by long-time Microsoft observer Paul Thurrott indicates. Although the restriction is often softened in practice, the approach would let owners use more than three full, active apps at a time. Microsoft previously instituted the limit both to accommodate the slower systems that would likely be used as well as to push customers towards the more lucrative Vista Home Basic.

The changes should also let users of the simplest Windows 7 build also change their desktop background, a feature that also wasn't an option in the past.

Why Microsoft would loosen its restrictions isn't mentioned in the seeming leak but may have its roots in the company's desire to maintain the control it recently gained of the netbook market. It won the market largely by heavily discounting Windows XP, eliminating most of the Linux cost advantage. Imposing major limits on the software bears the risk of steering some netbook buyers towards Linux, where those limits don't exist. Newer Linux variants like Ubuntu Netbook Remix are tailored just for the ultra-small computers.

Windows 7 Starter will nonetheless maintain some important restrictions, such as the absence of interface elements that require Aero Glass (such as "peek") and touchscreen support; as such, it's likely to increase the cost of convertible tablet netbooks and others with built-in touch.

Microsoft hasn't commented on the accuracy of the report.

Intel Bloomfield vs. Lynnfield vs. Havendale pixelized

During a visit to Taipei TT stumbled into some of the upcoming processors from Intel. Intel has already publically displayed the 32nm Clarkdale processor (Core i5 with integrated graphics on die) which is due to replace the "current" 45nm Havendale testing only CPU sometime early next year.

Acer launches easystrore home server

Acer on Thursday contributed its own more frugal entry into the home server space within the US through the Aspire easyStore Home Server AH340. Similar to HP's MediaSmart LX195, the easyStore runs on a 1.6GHz Atom to manage traffic to and from the server without the cost overhead of other processors. Acer's larger design, however, affords it four 3.5-inch drive bays that can take as much as 8TB of storage if completely filled.

As a Windows Home Server, the easyStore lets both Macs and Windows PCs both backup content or use the server as a central base for media; owners can access much of the content remotely and upload photos or other content while away. Despite the Microsoft focus, it supports DLNA media sharing on the home network to bring its content to a PlayStation 3 or other PCs and devices that recognize the standard.

The AH340 comes with a 1TB drive already installed as well as five USB ports and one eSATA port for adding extra storage. It should be available today for $400 (click thumbnail to enlarge photo).

EVGA X58 SLI LE and X58 SLI Micro motherboards soon

EVGA is going to introduce two new X58 motherboards targeted at new market segments. For the past six months, the EVGA X58 SLI family has lived a relatively successful life among many system builders and enthusiasts alike, and the company now wishes to broaden this lineup in an attempt to appeal the Core i7 platform to new adopters and user groups.

First on the list is the X58 SLI LE (141-BL-E757) motherboard, which will be placed directly under and priced lower than the current X58 SLI (141-BL-E758). One of the more notable features is the fact that it has four PCI-Express 2.0 slots that run at x16/x16/x8/x8, similar to the X58 SLI Classified (E760) non-NF200 model. It should be noted that the LE also features a PCI-E x1 slot directly under the top PCI-E x16 slot. This might be a problem for SLI users with audio or network cards running on the x1 interface, but it is possible to place two dual-slot cards in the second and third PCI-E slots should this be an issue. There is also a single standard PCI slot just as with the other X58 family boards.

The new X58 SLI LE will also feature a 6-phase analog PWM design with a single EPS 12v connector. In comparison, the X58 SLI features an 8-phase analog PWM design with a single EPS 12v connector while the enthusiast X58 SLI Classified features 10-phase digital PWM over dual EPS 12v connectors.

Apart from these design aspects, the LE board is very similar to the X58 SLI in its feature set. It includes six triple-channel DDR3 1600MHz slots, six SATA II 3.0Gb/s slots, an onboard LED for POST codes an temperature monitoring, but a passive heatsink rather than an active one. As stated before, the X58 SLI LE (E757) is an additional model to the X58 family that will be priced below the current X58 SLI (E758) model.

On the other hand, the company is also introducing its first enthusiast platform motherboard to compete in the micro-ATX market, the EVGA X58 SLI Micro (141-BL-E756). One of the more notable features that catches the eye is the fact that this mini board uses the same red and black color scheme found on the Classified. It features two PCI-Express x16 2.0 slots that allow for dual-slot SLI cards to be fit nicely and compactly, as well as a PCI-E x1 slot sandwiched between them and a standard PCI slot at the bottom.

The new X58 SLI Micro will also feature a 6-phase analog PWM design with a single EPS 12v connector. It has six triple-channel DDR3 1600MHz slots, six SATA II 3.0Gb/s slots, an onboard LED for POST codes and temperature monitoring, and the same passive heatsink found on the LE. Overall, this board should prove to be a good competitor to the ASUS Rampage II Gene mATX.

As far as availability goes, we are told that at least one of these new models will be available before the end of this month and the other shortly after [via en.hardspell]

Google Chrome update brings 30% faster browser

Google this afternoon launched an official update to its Chrome browser that it hopes will fight back against Safari 4 and other newer rivals. The upgrade further refines the software's distinctive java script engine and is estimated to be about 30 percent faster when using web apps and other sites that depend heavily on the code. Chrome similarly gets updates that bring it up to par with some features on other browsers, such as autofill for forms as well as a full-screen mode and the ability to remove unwanted thumbnails from the "most visited" page.

The search engine pioneer also boasts having fixed over 300 bugs and improved the general stability of Chrome. It continues to require Windows XP or Vista. Versions for Linux and Mac OS X remain in development but aren't anticipated until later this year.

In addition to its speed, Chrome is unique among browsers in assigning a program thread to each browser tab and thus preventing a crash in one from taking down the whole browser as well as speeding up browsing on multi-core computers. It also creates a "sandbox" to prevent malicious web code from easily infecting the operating system.

Spielberg predicts death of home consoles

Hollywood veteran Steven Spielberg expects to see the traditional home console die out, whilst virtual reality and 3D video games will make an emphatic comeback.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Spielberg boldly stated that he forecasts the conventional video game systems to go "the way of the Dodo bird," as well as declaring his preference for PC gaming.

Modern Warfare 2 Teaser

Woot :) Check out this new teaser for the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 trailer. So to clear some confusion, the trailer arrives May 24 and the game itself on November 10 ! This is brilliant marketing really :)